


Chain of Command

by thecookiemomma



Series: Chain of Command [1]
Category: Stargate - All Series, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M, Soulmark AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-04 01:40:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5315426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecookiemomma/pseuds/thecookiemomma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron Mitchell bothers his CO. It's time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chain of Command

"Mitchell," Cam looked up at the sound of O'Neill's voice. "You're a pain in my ass." Cam blinked. He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve the title this time, but he nodded, in the way of all good subordinates.

 

"Yessir, my momma told me I was exactly that on several separate occasions. Is there a particular reason, General, or just on general principle?" He tried to make his sarcastic reply sound mostly respectful, and thought he'd succeeded.

 

"Your request for a Viewer got approved. Is there a particular reason you're worrying about the marks right now?"

 

"Chain of command, sir." CoC was one of the few reasons a military person worried about a Mark Viewer. Most of the time, Personnel believed it when you told them who your Soulfriends and Soulmates were. Most of the time, bonds forged in battle made some kind of impression: it was why soldiers looked so different. However, when things got more tricky or ... personal, they called in the Viewer.

 

"How long have you had this particular Mark, Colonel?" The General was reverting to rank, and his eyes were narrowing like Jackson had bought him something useless at a planet's market and was wanting to put it on their bedside table.

 

"Almost twenty years, sir. Didn't start out as an issue. Then, well..." He shrugged.

 

O'Neill's eyes softened. "Yeah. I get that." He reached up and touched the edge of the mark on his upper arm, eyes glazing over with quiet emotion. Cam knew that look. He'd seen it on Johnny's face this morning. "What I don't get is why it's coming up now. No. Wait." He held up his hand. "Let me think for a moment, Mitchell." Cam could see his eyes narrowing again, this time in calculation. "Chain of Command. So, it's not someone who wouldn't be a non-issue. Because you wouldn't waste my time, or that of the Viewer's, or of the whole damn federal government." Cam could hear the warning in the words, and was glad they'd waited this long.

 

"No, sir. I'd have let it be." The General nodded, and Cam relaxed a little. "He's comin' on staff here soon. He's ..."

 

O'Neill held up his hand in the classic gesture, and gave that very O'Neill sound. "Aht!" He grabbed a paper and scanned it. "So, a couple of lonely flyboys meet up in what? AIT? Flight school?"

 

"Flight School, sir." He was relieved that the other man was on the right track. It made things so much easier. "Johnny was flyin' the rotors, and I was flyin' the fixed wing. It mighta been chance, but we kept goin' up at the same time, and from there, it became a thing." He held his hands out expansively, knowing the man would understand.

 

"A twenty-year 'thing.'" General O'Neill used air-quotes around the last word, only slightly derisive of Cam's choice of words.

 

"Yessir. A twenty-year thing. He's met Momma and Daddy, and I've met his assholes, I mean, his father and brother." He snorted, knowing the General had to have read the file. When the other man pursed his lips in consternation, Cam knew he had.

 

"You ever think about finalizing this 'thing?'" Cam blinked. "It would help." Again, his hand slid up to his arm, and he touched the little bit of the mark that was exposed. "It makes it really hard to take them away when you've got papers and everything." The old man knew this from experience. It was painfully obvious.

 

"Thought about it, sir. He had a wife for awhile before we switched from Friends to Mates. That went pretty horribly. Their marks were good for a while, and then, she tried to make it look like it was darker than it was. Used ..." He shook his head, unable to tell how Nancy had kept the mark somewhere she could redraw over it while she knew it was fading. It was a betrayal of the deepest kind, and it still rankled him. He wanted to prosecute her thoroughly, but Johnny had prevented it. Since it was Johnny's ex, he let it slide. Anger bubbled up and he pursed his lips, but shook his head, refusing to say more.

 

"I get that. Imagine having to figure out whether your Mark is changing, and you know your Friend's isn't, because he's hooked on his wife. Which is a good thing. But, finally, you recognize that you're both falling so hard for each other, and you can't do a damn thing about it. Plus, the bitch inside of her is using her feelings to keep the mark dark and terrorize your boy with it." He shuddered.

 

One of the things they'd found out about Goaul'd was that they could manipulate marks, especially if they let the host's emotions show. The connection wouldn't feel good to the host's Friend or Mate, but they could make it look damn good long enough to get into places they didn't need to be.

 

"Damn, sir, I thought I had it rough." He snorted. Watching John get all self-destructive over a Mark that had been fading, and wondering why she hadn't been matching. He shook his head.

 

"Yeahhhh..." O'Neill drew it out, in that slow, frustrated way he had. He leaned back in his chair, gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk, and sighed. "Well, settle in, Mitchell. We'll figure out what we can do. If you can convince him to finalize everything beforehand, we can work with that. If not, well, we'll go on with what we've got."

 

"I'll talk to him, sir, but I can't guarantee anything. He's gonna be mortified at this much." His boy was so private and careful about who he showed his Mark to. Cam displayed his mark proudly: a helicopter with rich grays and blues surrounding it. Johnny's was a fixed-wing, that looked something like the little trainer they flew in Flight School. When people saw it, he was sure they wondered why that plane, and not any of the others the man could fly. Cam shook his head, eager to get this taken care of and get back to Johnny. It was looking more and more like they were going to be separated full-time, which was going to be a hell of a bitch.

 

"There might be another reason to think about the Viewer, sir. Not just for Chain of Command and Next of Kin shit." He bit his lip, and waited for the shoe to drop.

 

"That's gonna tear up my best team. Mitchell, I was right in my original assessment: you are a pain in my ass."   
O´Neill sighed. "But I can see why. If — and I say _if_ — you can get that man of yours to commit, we'll talk about a change of station. Otherwise, you will have to deal."

 

Cam shook his head. "Damn, you are a devious bastard, General. I won't tell a soul about your soft, squishy center." Cameron stood, and winked, before saluting him. "Gotta go. Got an errant flyboy to catch and tame."  

 

"Dismissed." O'Neill grumbled, but Cam could see the light in his eyes as he returned the salute. "Get outta here."

 

Cam did exactly that.

* * *

"Sheppard!" Cam caught up with his 'Mate in the hall. "You got a few minutes to walk with me?" He grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

 

"I might be persuaded to talk to you for a few minutes, Mitchell." Johnny shrugged one shoulder in that way Cam found so endearing — and arousing — and followed him into his office. "So, spill. What's got you running around like a headless chicken?"

 

"Been around me too long, Sunshine." Cam grinned, reaching up to run his hands through John's hair. "I went to talk to General O'Neill."

 

"About the Viewer?" They'd talked that much over. The rest of it was going to be the hard part.

 

"Yeah. He's got it all set up." John closed his eyes at Cam's words, and Cam slid his hand down to the back of John's neck. "Baby. We got this. He understands. He and Jackson went through more than we did."

 

"And they're still together?" The mess with Nancy had hit his Johnny hard, and his smile turned wry remembering it. "I might need to talk to one of them, then."

 

"I'd suggest Jackson. He can tell you tales..." He shuddered. "Just hearing O'Neill's short version of it was terrifying." He tapped his foot, his whole leg bouncing, nerves jangling up and down his spine. "Well, baby, uh ..."

 

"What did you do, Mitchell?" Johnny knew him too well. "What's cooking in that slow-cooker of a mind?"

 

"Not all of us can be geniuses, son." He smiled, happy to deflect for a second to appreciate his Mate.

 

"And you're deflecting. Come on, Mitchell, out with it."

 

Well, now that they'd come this far, he decided to go the whole way. He pulled his arm back, slid down to one knee, and grinned up at the man he'd loved for nigh on fifteen years. "John Patrick Sheppard, will you do me the very great honor of being my bonded mate for all time?"

 

John blinked at him, clearly processing things in his brain. He leaned back against Cam's desk, sitting on the edge of it, eyes unfocused and mind whirling.

 

"Tell me one thing, Shaft," Johnny hissed, eyes dark with concern and stirrings of anger. "Tell me you're not doing this now _just_ on the suggestions of your CO. Because if you are... If you're fucking..."

 

Cam couldn't listen to more. "No, baby. No. I've been thinking about this for a long time. Since..." He closed his eyes. Since his father had sat him down and asked when in the hell was Cam gonna make an honest man of his mate and why were they waiting so long? Cam had explained, just as he had for O'Neill, and Daddy had understood. Mostly. Both men knew that marriage wouldn't fix anything, but it made some things a hell of a lot easier. He closed his eyes.

 

Technically, he'd thought about it before introducing Johnny to his family. He frowned, trying to remember. "When you walked out of a briefing one day, and your hair was just starting to get that long look, and you looked over at me, and smiled. Way before I realized what was going on. I had a stray thought. I told myself, 'Cameron Mitchell, you could easily marry that one.' Hand to fucking God, Guru. If it weren't for all the shit Nancy and Amy and everybody put us through, I'd have found us a Bonder fifteen years ago."

 

He waited for the information to filter through all the logic gates in John's brain, and held very still. John processed the words, and his shoulders relaxed. "What did O'Neill say to make you bring it up now?"

 

"If I'm married to you, baby, we could walk through the ring together. Wouldn't have to wait home like a little wife for the expedition to figure out how to get you all home. Not sure how it'd work with Chain of Command, but that ain't my shit to shovel." He grinned.

 

John thought about it for a few more moments, eyes darting back and forth as though he were laying out a battle plan. Cam wasn't worried. He'd seen the same look hundreds of times as they lay in bed together, and Johnny had surprised him with a hand-to-hand move that pinned him to the bed and took his time thoroughly playing with him until Cam was hurting and begging for more. He chewed on his lip, watching as John opened his mouth. He expected some gentle let down, or an acquiescence. What he wasn't prepared for was for his Mate to slide off the desk, slide to his knees, and press their hands together in the ancient ritual movement. "Cameron Francis Mitchell, in equal honor, I accept your troth."

 

Cameron waited the requisite moment or so, then he slid his hands around Johnny's middle, and sighed as they pressed their lips together. They couldn't kiss for long, not on base, but for a few moments, the whole damn SGC could go to hell. He had his Mate, and they would start a new life together.

**Author's Note:**

> "Guru:" Shep's possible call-sign came up in a conversation between the Wookie and I. I asked for a call-sign of a man who was really good at getting people out of trouble but not as good at taking care of himself. Wookie suggested "selfhelp," which didn't ring true. So, he mentioned "Guru," and I said, "that works, considering his name is Sheppard." So, henceforth, in my headcanon, Shep's call-sign is Guru. *sagenod*


End file.
